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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Spell Bound (Women of the Otherworld Series, Book 12) by Kelley Armstrong

Spell Bound (Women of the Otherworld Series, Book 12) by Kelley Armstrong

Completion Date: July 25, 2011

Reason for Reading: Carry on with the series.

Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she’s powerless to help herself. At the conclusion of Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would help a young girl. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise.

And now, witch hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell casting talent, the thing she counts on most. In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Spell Bound gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jamie, Hope, and others, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within.

I have to start by saying this is the 12th book in the series and I have read the 11 that came before it. This is very rare for me. I am terrible with series and usually stall after only a couple books. I love this series, though, and made a concentrated effort to catch-up in it last year or the year before. There was only one book I was less than thrilled with, Dime Store Magic, but otherwise I have loved this series and always look forward to each new book. There has been talk that book thirteen will be the last one and that makes me sad.

Like Waking the Witch before it, this book was narrated by Savannah Levine. She is the 21-year-old witch that we have watched grow-up during the course of these books. She still kind of annoys me, but that's the point. She is supposed to be impulsive and strong-willed. The thing I really liked about this book was that Armstrong managed to work in many of the main characters from other books in the series. During the course of the book we see Elena, Clay, Hope, Jaime, Jeremy, Karl, Adam, Paige, Lucas, Cassandra, Aaron, and possibly other people that I am not thinking of at the moment. They all have been worked into the story in such a way that it didn't feel like the series was getting near the end and she wanted to work as many old favourites in as possible. It just seemed like a natural progression. I have grown attached to many of these characters over 12 books and continue to enjoying learning more about them.

In Waking the Witch, Savannah ends the book by finding she has lost her powers. Then the book ends. This book takes place literally right after she makes that discovery and carries on from there. This is actually like a trilogy inside a larger series. This book and the one before it had a bit of a cliff-hanger ending and could essentially be one book. That's typically how this series works anyway. There are novels about the werewolves and novels about the witches. There are other supernatural races represented but since Hope is with Karl and Jeremy is with Jaime, etc, they still fit into those two categories. I think this is why this series works so well. It has the same characters, but they are not necessarily present in each book. It keeps the series fresh.

I am pretty amazed by just how much is going on in essentially a not very long book. Savannah is dealing with her loss of powers, but there is also a war coming. A group of Supernaturals have decided that they should 'come out' to humans. Since humans outnumber them by a great deal, this is probably a bad idea. That's what Savannah and her group think, anyway. This leads to all sorts of problems and brings up events from previous books and characters that we thought we had heard the last of in really creative ways. I am looking forward to the next book to clear everything up and reveal all the secrets.

I only skimmed your review because I've missed a few in this series but really want to get back and read them. I have to say that I think the quality dropped a little after the first two books, but I still really enjoy them.

I am so sorry, but I turned anonymous commenting off. I have had it from the very beginning, but that is how the spam is getting by my spam filter at the moment. If it is a big deal I will turn it back on and moderate all comments. I also changed moderation from older than 14 days to older than 7.

About Me

Since I was a little girl I have been fascinated with books. Early photos show me with a book in hand, even if it was not exactly my reading level... My first word was a made-up word meaning 'book', actually. I suppose I had my priorities at an early age... Over the years my interest in books has become one of the defining features of who I am as a person. You can probably call me a bookworm. While I have other interests, reading will always be the one I talk about the most, even if I am not focusing on it as much as I used to.